Abstract:

Ecological crisis is one of the most urgent challenges that all human beings are facing. In response, there was an “ecological turn” in education and thereby the movement of “ecopdagogy” was taking shape in the late 20^th century. This paper discusses the background, the history of formation, and the main ideas of ecopedagogy. There are two main views in terms of ecopedagogy: philosophical and critical ecopedagogy. In the former view, “ecosophy” and “ecophilia” are the cardinal ideas. The formation of philosophical ecopedagogy consists in the nineteenth century transcendentalism and naturalist idyllic literature. In the latter view, “eco–justice” is the core idea. The development of critical ecopedagogy is grounded on critical theory and critical pedagogy that aim to disentangle the socio-political webbing from environmental problems. This article intends to describe the formation of ecopedagogy and its implications for educational practice.

Key words: ecopedagogy, ecosophy, ecophilia, ecojustice